Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Ḥavvot Yair (Villages of Yair): A Curriculum of Study
[Question:] A certain gentleman, a close and trusted friend, a Torah scholar who had read scripture, learned Mishnah, and ministered to many learned talmudic scholars, invited me to come to the holy…
The New York Intellectuals
We were living directly after the Holocaust of the European Jews. We might scorn our origins; we might crush America with discoveries of ardor; we might change our names. But we knew that but for an…
Le-‘eyne kol Yisra’el (In the Sight of All Israel)
They distort the words of the living God. It is a clear Torah lesson, as the sages have taught: “Whosoever speculates on four things, a pity for him! He is as though he had not come into the world.”Th…
Don Iudá
Just then Don Iudá took off his coat and greeted us one by one. My mother, out of breath as we’d been in such a hurry to come, explained everything in short choppy phrases.We children would stay there…
Colophon: Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah
And we, in our humble opinion, state that it was done well, although the labor was very great, and it ran very quickly, and according to our sharpness of wit at that time we examined it well, for we…
Ferocious Animals
Benleví:[while he speaks, Sara enters with the slippers] All they do in the synagogue is talk about Ishmael.Sara:[bent over, putting on the slippers] They seem to forget that they’re there to talk to…
Colophon: Seder taharot (Order of Purification)
So said Jacob ben R. Ḥayim Ibn Adoniyahu of blessed memory, after completing the proofreading of Seder taharot, I intended to apologize, since the subject is not habitual, and the source texts are few…
Regulations
Bylaws of the Holy Society for Torah Study of the holy community of Kraków, instituted by our rabbis, the Rema [Moses Isserles], ha-Baḥ [Joel Sirkes], known by the title of his book, Bayit ḥadash [Ne…
Anthology of Persian Songs from the Creations of Iranian Jewry
The acquaintance between the Iranian and Jewish peoples began approximately 2,500 years ago. Historical and linguistic evidence supporting this…
Chatham Square Cemetery
Among the graves in the burial ground of Congregation Shearith Israel, in New York City (the oldest Jewish cemetery in the United States) is that of Cantor Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745–1816), the first…
Tombstone Inscriptions (Thessaloniki)
Here is a man who revered The Name with loveWhose name was known For his generous spiritHe gave to charity To failing soulsFrom his pocket and his wealth Until…
Tombstone of Torah Scholar
This tombstone of a Torah scholar from Sieniawa, Poland includes motifs and symbols often found on Jewish tombstones in Poland, such as a crown and palm trees. Other common symbols on Jewish…